A court suit brought in July 1969, and the subsequent court order issued in April, 1971, resulted in the transfer of 598 mentally ill offenders from Farview State Hospital, Pennsylvania's only maximum security hospital, to the state mental hospitals. The plaintiffs, who became known as the Dixon Class, had spent an average of 15 years at Farview as a result of the staff's evaluation that they were too dangerous to be tranferred to older, less secure hospitals or to be released to the community. The proposed research attempts to: (1) Find the relationships between preinstitutional, institutional, and post-institutional dangerousness; (2) Find factors associated with post-release dangerousness and adjustment; and (3) Assess the personal and social impact of the mass transfer and release. From the extensive records kept on each patient at Farview and the transfer hospital background data, psychological test scores, and reports of dangerous behavior have been collected. Interviews with each of the subjects and a relative, friend, or hospital employee are being used to determine information on post-release adjustment. Finally, interviews with hospital staff members will provide information on the social impact of the transfer.